• Dwarfs formerly could volunteer to be playfully treated in American nightclubs, but such venues now appear limited to Europe. (1) A club in the German coastal town of Cuxhaven might be in trouble following a September incident in which a 42-year-old dwarf accidentally fell off of a podium before engaging in the club's contest, "Lilliputian Action," in which customers chase an elusive dwarf. (2) London's Hippodrome Casino has reportedly run a series of ads seeking dwarfs (maximum height: 4 feet, 9 inches) for a special crew of bouncers and door guards to be unveiled in December. [The Local (Berlin), 9-24-2013] [Heart Radio (London), 11-19-2013]

• A formal investigation into the strange death of British intelligence code-breaker Gareth Williams concluded in November with a police judgment that the death was an accident, despite the body's having been discovered inside a zippered and padlocked garment bag in an otherwise unused bathtub in his London apartment.

An earlier inquest into the 2010 death had unsatisfactorily failed to rule out foul play, setting up the police examination, but two facts stood out, according to the officer in charge: The key to the padlock was found within easy reach of the bag, and, according to experts, even though no usable fingerprints or DNA was found in the apartment, it had not been "deep-cleaned" (as might be expected in a death with intel-op implications). [New York Times, 11-14-2013]